The Body Keeps the Score

published

2020-11-17

rating

5

Very interesting and informative book about psychological trauma. I think it may be applicable to many people who don't believe that they've been traumatized because trauma is a strong word, but the experience of trauma is probably more like a spectrum in which everyone has some degree of it. It explains some of the science about how the brain and body deal with trauma, but it's not very heavy. It basically describes the author's quest to improve the understanding and treatment of trauma. He seems to be somewhat of a dissident fighting some entrenched beliefs. For example, he promotes the diagnosis of complex PTSD and argues that common practices like CBT and talk therapy are not the most effective for it. The main actionable pieces of advice I noticed were: EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP) therapy, neurofeedback, yoga, and theatre.